Privacy Policy

Epistema Ltd. (“Epistema”, “we”, “our” or “us”) develops and provides a web-based decision making platform, using the power of collaboration, art of discussion, and science of analytics to help organizations with sourcing knowledge and making data-driven decisions (the “Platform”). Our Platform, which is available either as a standalone web application or as an integration to third party services (“Integrated Service”), allows mid- to large-sized organizations and growth companies (“Customers”) to gain insight into the debating participants’ (“End Users”) nature and the epistemic value of their contributions, and to make data-driven decisions, as further described on our website -www.episte.ma (the “Site”; and together with the Platform – the “Services”).

We respect the privacy of all visitors to our Site (“Visitors”), our Customers and End Users (collectively, “you” or “your”), and are committed to making our practices regarding your Personal Data (defined in Section 1) more transparent and fairer. This Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) describes how we collect, store, use, and disclose such Personal Data, and accounts for our roles as Data Controller and/or Data Processor (defined in Section 10) with respect to each of our data processing activities.

Please read this Policy carefully to make sure that you fully understand and agree to it. If you do not agree to this Policy, please discontinue and avoid using our Services.

You are not legally required to provide us with any Personal Data, but without it we may not be able to provide you with the full range of our Services or with the best user experience. To learn more about the choices available to you, please read Section ‎8 below.

1. Data Collection

We collect Personal Data regarding our Customers, End Users and Visitors in order to support our activities and legitimate interests for sustaining our Services. Such data is typically collected and generated by automatic means, through your direct interaction with us or with our Services, or from other third parties as described below.

Specifically, we collect the following categories of data which, to the extent that this data relates to an identified or identifiable individual, will be deemed as “Personal Data”:

1.1. Data Collected or Generated Automatically

When you visit, interact with, or use our Services, we may collect or generate certain technical data about you. We collect or generate such data either independently or with the help of third-party services (as detailed in Section 4 below), including through the use of cookies and other tracking technologies (as further detailed in Section 5 below).

Such data mainly consists of connectivity, technical, and aggregated usage data, such as IP addresses, browser version, location and language settings used, visit history, general location, date and timestamp search keywords, activities and other actions on the Platform (such as clicks, views and other interactions).

We mainly use this data as necessary for the provision of our Services, and to gain a better understanding of how Visitors, Customers, and End Users typically use and interact with our Services or with other End Users, how we could improve their user experience and enhance our product, and in order to optimize the overall performance of our Services.

1.2. Data Received from You

You may provide us with Personal Data such as your name, workplace, department, contact details (such as email address), account login details (such as usernames and hashed passwords), and optionally, a profile image (collectively, “Account Data”), as well as any other data you choose to provide when you use our Services, create a user account on the Platform, integrate the Platform with an Integrated Service, or contact us.

1.3. Additional Data Received from our Customers

Customers may provide us with additional Account Data, such as billing details, business needs, and preferences. To the extent that such data concerns a non-human entity (e.g., the bank account of a company), we will not regard it as Personal Data, and this Policy shall not apply.

Customers may also provide us with Personal Data concerning their service providers, colleagues or employees in order to register them to our Services, under the Customer’s account. Such data usually refers to the names or nicknames and work emails of such individuals, as well as any other data provided at the Customer’s discretion.

Finally, Customers may provide us with Personal Data, from or in relation to End Users or other individuals, which Customers themselves have collected or generated with regard to their own services. The nature and types of such data are solely determined by each Customer (which is the “Data Controller” of such data), and Epistema will only process such data on the Customer’s behalf (as its “Data Processor”), as further described in Section 10 below.

1.4. Data Received from Third Parties

We may receive Personal Data relating to Customers and End Users from third-party sources, such as Service Providers and Integrated Services (e.g., Epistema’s integration with Slack).

For example, when you connect to Epistema through your account on such platforms or applications, Epistema may receive, collect and record certain information which you provide on these platforms or applications. Specifically, we may collect your user name, name, profile image and email address. In addition, we may receive and record such information pertaining to other users on the same Integrated Service.

If you participate in an event or webinar that we sponsor or participate in as well, we may receive your Personal Data from the event organizers. We may also receive contact and professional details (e.g., your name, job role, company name, contact details, professional experience, preferences and interests) from our business partners or Services Provides, including through the use of tools and channels commonly used to connect between companies and individuals in order to explore potential business and employment opportunities, such as LinkedIn.

2. Data Uses

We use Personal Data as necessary for the performance of our Services, to comply with applicable law, and to support our legitimate interests in maintaining and improving our Services and offerings, as well as to understand how our Services are used, optimize our marketing and advertising services, enable customer service and support operations, and protect and secure our Visitors, Customers, End Users, ourselves, and our Services.

Specifically, we use Personal Data for the following purposes:

To facilitate, operate, and provide our Services;

To authenticate and verify the identity and eligibility of our Customers and End Users;

To provide Visitors, Customers, and End Users with assistance and support;

To manage and deliver advertisements more effectively, including contextual, behavioral, and interests-based advertising for our own products and services, based on End Users’ activity, preferences or other data available to us or to our business partners, including for retargeting purposes;

To create audience-related insights for optimizing ad performance;

To further develop, customize, and improve the Services, based on common or personal preferences, experiences, and difficulties;

To contact our Visitors, Customers and End Users with general or personalized service-related messages (e.g., billing) and promotional messages (such as newsletters, new features, etc.); and to facilitate, sponsor, and offer certain events and promotions;

To support and enhance our data security measures, including for the purposes of preventing and mitigating the risks of fraud, error or any illegal or prohibited activity;

To create aggregated statistical data, inferred non-personal data or anonymized or pseudonymized data (rendered non-personal), which we or our business partners may use at our discretion, including to provide and improve our respective Services; and

To comply with any applicable laws and regulations.

3. Data Location & Retention

Data Location: Your Personal Data may be maintained, processed, and stored by Epistema and our authorized affiliates and Service Providers in the State of Israel, the U.S., and other jurisdictions, as necessary for the proper delivery of our Services or as may be required by law.

Epistema is headquartered in Israel, a jurisdiction which is considered by the European Commission to offer an adequate level of protection for the Personal Data of EU Member State residents.

While privacy laws may vary between jurisdictions, Epistema, its affiliates, and Service Providers are each committed to protecting Personal Data in accordance with this Policy and industry standards, regardless of any lesser legal requirements that may apply in their jurisdiction.

Data Retention: We retain Personal Data of Visitors and prospective Customers for as long as is reasonably necessary in order to maintain and expand our relationship and to provide them with our Services.

We retain Personal Data of Customers and End Users as necessary for us to provide them with our Services, to comply with our legal and contractual obligations, and to protect ourselves from any potential disputes (i.e., as required by laws applicable to log-keeping, records and bookkeeping, and in order to have proof and evidence concerning our relationship, should any legal issues arise following your discontinuance of use) in accordance with our data retention policy. We also retain Personal Data of End Users as necessary for continuously optimizing the performance of our Services, and to gain further insights into the typical usage of our Services based on the aggregation of data available to us.

Except as required by applicable law or under our agreements with our Customers, we will not be obligated to retain your Personal Data for any particular period, and we are free to securely delete or anonymize it for any reason and at any time, with or without notice to you.

If you have any questions about our data retention policy, please contact us via email at privacy@episte.ma.

4. Data Sharing

Legal Compliance: We may disclose or allow government and law enforcement officials access to your Personal Data, in response to a subpoena, a search warrant or court order (or similar requirement) or in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Such disclosure or access may occur if we believe, in good faith, that we are legally compelled to do so or that disclosure is appropriate in connection with efforts to investigate, prevent or take action regarding actual or suspected illegal activity, fraud or other wrongdoing.

Service Providers: We may engage selected third-party companies and individuals to perform services complementary to our own – e.g., hosting services, data analytics services, marketing and advertising services, data and cyber security services, payment processing services, email distribution and monitoring services, and our business, legal, and financial advisors (collectively, “Service Providers“). These Service Providers may have access to your Personal Data, depending on each of their specific roles and purposes in facilitating and enhancing our Services, and may only use it for such purposes.

In particular, one of our Service Providers is Google which provides a tool called Google Analytics used by us to track and analyze the use of our Services, for internal purposes. To learn more about how Google uses data from our use of Google Analytics, we recommend that you review Google’s policies by visiting google.com/policies/privacy/partners. You can learn about Google Analytics’ opt-out option by visiting https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Sharing Personal Data with or on behalf of our Customers: We may share End Users’ Personal Data with the respective Customer owning their accounts, or with another service provider, in accordance with the reasonable instructions of such Customer (acting as the Data Controller of such data, as we act as the Data Processor and process such End Users’ data on the Customer’s behalf). For example, based on a Customer’s instructions, we may share their End Users’ Personal Data with another service provider also processing such Personal Data on such Customer’s behalf.

Protecting Rights and Safety: We may share your Personal Data with others if we believe, in good faith, that this will help to protect the rights, property or personal safety of Epistema, any of our Customers, Visitors, End Users, or any members of the general public.

Our Subsidiaries and Affiliate Companies: We may share Personal Data internally, within our group of subsidiaries and affiliated companies, for the purposes described in this Policy. In addition, should Epistema or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates undergo any change in control, including by means of merger, acquisition or purchase of substantially all of its assets, your Personal Data may be shared with the parties involved in such an event. If we believe that such change in control might materially affect your Personal Data then stored with us, we will notify you of this event and the choices you may have via email or through a prominent notice on our Services.

For the avoidance of doubt, Epistema may share your Personal Data in additional manners pursuant to your explicit approval or if we are legally obligated to do so or, alternatively, if we have successfully rendered such data non-personal and anonymous. We may transfer, share or otherwise use non-personal data at our sole discretion and without the need for further approval.

5. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Our Services and some of our Service Providers utilize cookies, anonymous identifiers, and other tracking technologies which help us to provide, secure, and improve our Services, personalize your user experience, and monitor the performance of our business activities.

A “cookie” is a small text file that can be used, for example, to collect data about user activity on our Services. Some cookies and other technologies serve to recall Personal Data, such as an IP address previously indicated by the Visitor or End User.

While we do not change our practices in response to a “Do Not Track” signal in the HTTP header from a browser, most browsers allow you to control cookies, including whether or not to accept them or to remove them. You may set most browsers to notify you if you receive a cookie or to block cookies automatically.

6. Communications

Service Communications: We may contact you with important information regarding our Services. For example, we may notify you, through any of the means available to us, of changes or updates to our Services, as well as billing issues, service changes, etc. We may also send you notifications, messages and other updates directly or through our Services. Typically, you will not be able to opt out from receiving such service communications while using our Services, as they are integral to such use.

Notifications and Promotional Communications: We may send you notifications through the use of direct messages and other such updates in your user account. We may also send you notifications about new features, offerings, events, and special opportunities or any other information we think our Visitors, Customers, and/or End Users will find valuable. We may provide such notices through any of the contact means available to us (e.g., phone number or email address), through the Services or through our presence on any other sites or platforms.

If you do not wish to receive such promotional communications, you may notify Epistema directly, and at any given time, by sending an email to privacy@episte.ma, by changing your communication preferences in your account or by following the “Unsubscribe”, “Stop”, “Opt out” or “Change email preferences” options contained in such promotional communications.

7. Data Security

In order to protect your Personal Data held with us and our Service Providers, we are using industry-standard physical, procedural, and electronic security measures, as appropriate. However, please be aware that regardless of any security measures used, we cannot and do not guarantee the absolute protection and security of any Personal Data stored with us or with any Service Providers or other recipients as described in Section 4 above.

8. Data Subject Rights

If you wish to exercise your rights under any applicable law, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), to request access to, or rectification or erasure of your Personal Data held with Epistema, or to restrict or object to such Personal Data’s processing or to port such Personal Data, then please send us an email to privacy@episte.ma.

Please note that once you contact us by email, we may require additional information and documents, including Personal Data, in order to authenticate and validate your identity and to process your request. Such additional data will be retained by us for legal purposes (e.g., as proof of the identity of the person submitting the request) in accordance with Section 3 above.

If you are an End User wishing to exercise your rights pertaining to your Personal Data processed by us, then we suggest that you also turn to the relevant Customer who is acting as the Data Controller of your Personal Data in this instance, given that Epistema acts as the Data Processor only (see Section 10 below for more details).

9. Children’s Privacy

Our Services are not designed to attract children under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect Personal Data from children and do not wish to do so. If we learn that we collect data relating to a person under the age of 18, then we will make all efforts to promptly delete any Personal Data stored with us with regard to such a child. If you believe that we might have any such data, please send us an email to privacy@episte.ma with all relevant details.

10. Data Controller/Processor

Certain data protection laws and regulations, such as the GDPR, typically distinguish between two main roles for any parties processing Personal Data: The Data Controller, who determines the purposes and means of processing, and the Data Processor, who processes the data on behalf of the Data Controller. Below we explain how both of these roles apply to our Services, to the extent that such laws and regulations apply.

Epistema is the Data Controller of its Visitors’ and Customers’ Personal Data, and, with respect to which, assumes the responsibilities of Data Controller (solely to the extent applicable under law), as set forth in this Policy.

If a Customer submits any Personal Data concerning its End Users to the Services, or Epistema otherwise obtains such Personal Data from third-party sources, and processes it solely on the Customer’s behalf, then the Customer shall be deemed the Data Controller of this data, and Epistema shall be deemed as Data Processor. In these cases, we will process such End Users’ data on behalf of our Customer, and in accordance with its reasonable instructions, subject to our Terms of Service and other commercial agreements, all to which the Customer is legally bound. The Customer will be solely responsible for meeting any legal requirements applicable to the Data Controllers of such data (e.g., to establish a legal basis for processing Personal Data and responding to Data Subject Rights requests concerning the data controlled).

However, if Epistema collects and processes any End Users’ Personal Data solely on its own behalf (for example, an End User’s Account Data processed to allow them access to the Services, or usage data being analyzed to obtain insights concerning user behavior), then Epistema shall be deemed the Data Controller of such Personal Data.

If you would like to make any requests or queries regarding Personal Data which we process on our Customer’s behalf, please contact the relevant Customer about this directly.

Should we receive any requests pertaining to Personal Data of which we are solely the Data Processor, we may refer them further to our Customer for their perusal.

11. Additional Notices

Updates and Amendments: We may sometimes update and amend this Policy by posting an amended version to our Services. The amended version will be effective as of the date it is published. We will provide a 10-day prior notice if we believe that any substantial changes are involved, and shall do so via any of the communication means available to us or through the Services. After such a notice period, all amendments shall be deemed accepted by you.

External Links and Integrated Services: While our Services may contain links to other websites or services, or may be integrated with any Integrated Service, we are not responsible for others’ privacy practices. Thus, we encourage you to pay attention when you leave our Services for the website or application of such third parties, or when you use an Integrated Service, and to read the privacy policies of each and every website and service you visit. Our Policy applies only to our Services.

Questions, Concerns or Complaints: If you have any comments or questions about this Policy or if you have any other concerns regarding your Personal Data, please contact us at privacy@episte.ma. If you are a GDPR-protected individual, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with an EU supervisory authority.